Crime & Safety

Judge's Son Does Hard Time For Heroin: Court Supervision

Former Will County Chief Judge Rodney Lechwar's son did a full seven months out of an eight-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to the manufacture or delivery of heroin.

This story was written by Patch Editor Joseph Hosey

Back in November, the son of former Will County Chief Judge Rodney Lechwar was looking at a possible 30 years in prison for the manufacture or delivery of heroin.

That sounds like a lot of years, but the cops said 30-year-old Matthew Lechwar had quite a bit of heroin on him when he was arrested. And Matthew Lechwar was heading to prison for the second time on a felony drug charge.

But at the last minute, special prosecutor Charles Colburn reduced Matthew Lechwar's charge and asked Will County Judge Edward Burmila to recommend him for a special boot camp program. The special boot camp program would allow Matthew Lechwar to get out of prison in a matter of months.

Burmila sentenced Matthew Lechwar to eight years in prison but also made the recommendation for bootcamp. And Matthew Lechwar got out of prison last week after serving less than seven months. Matthew Lechwar's retired judge father has failed to respond to calls for comment on his son's case.

Let's look at what else was going in court last week:

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